There's no denying that Microsoft's strategy for the current-gen has been incredibly successful and the Sony has had to work hard to get to where it has. However, Microsoft's policies have become increasingly arrogant - from its steadfast policy of charging developers to issue patches, to its poor treatment of indie developers, to the refusal to release games planned for PC on PC (Halo 3, Halo Wars, Gears Of War 2/3, etc) or timed exclusives (Alan Wake, GTAIV, etc) and now with strong rumours that it will require gamers to connect online before playing games on the X720. Meanwhile Sony has worked hard to mend its relationships with developers.

Personally I don't have any interest in consoles but I'd like to see Sony do better in this coming generation, as I think that would be better for gamers.

Game developers are stupid. Just make EVERY game cross platform. If you pull favorites then you lose profit. Simple as that. -_-

Assuming they can, some do not have the resources to make it cross platform, or the in house expertise for certain systems.Also, spending $$$ on a specific port that may not sell well at all or bombs is also a risk they have to calculate.

For big publishers, they have the resources to do this, Indie / Self publish may not.

In a forum (GH) that is slowing down in speed, and has been in decline for a while, either contribute and post topics of your own interest or hold back on the childish telling of others to stop posting news/topics you don't like. What goes on inside said topics, is up for moderators to sort out, but news is news. Most of the stuff I've posted in the past few days has been posted on Neowin's front pages, for anyone criticizing quality.

I only post from the known gaming sites, and will stick with rumours that at least have multiple source/some credibility. Outside of that, it's not my fault your favourite console is getting the headlines you do not want elsewhere on the web. Don't shoot the messenger, yadda yadda. MS have been in multiple stories to do with developer unhappiness and red tape in the past years, it's not suddenly a new opinion piece I've conducted myself.

A new console generation spices things up on these forums, and you need not worry about my behaviour, let me worry about that and it's something I these days, do not worry about. Neither do the mods considering the last time I ever got a warning was years ago, just fyi.

XNA is dead, April 1 2014 is the last day of support, and no new versions.They buried Indie games in there interface pretty deep several times, you had to stumble across it, or knew where it's at.Microsoft obsession with control on xbox live, not allowing some to go on sale at the request of the game makers, etc.

Will see how Microsoft handles indie games at there Xbox next reveal or even talk about it at all (which would not be a good sign).

MS buried XBLIG because it was bad publicity, 99.9999% of the games there was terrible. absolutely horrible. And any developer who made anything worth anything made it for XBLA anyway. XBLIG was a playground, and it was free, why would it be MS job to put it front and center and even advertise the games there. if you want publicity as an indie, well you're indie do it yourself. that's the point...

Check Gamasutra and indies forums. There are a lot of nasty stories involving XBLA and indies.

Funny thing, a lot of those "indie" (overused word that don't fit most of them, small studio is better) who have gone out against MS and XBLA terms have later had to go back on their word, when not only did XBLA turn out to be their biggest money maker, but the other platforms they tried on had the same problems they complained about on XBLA.

MS controlling the price has it's reasons, as far as xbla goes the bigger studios and publishers could come in and undercut the smaller guys who can't afford to start off selling a game at $1 or $2. Keeping the prices even for everyone, big and small makes it fair for the little guy.

Also, more money is being made this way in the end, if it was a free for all and we had a race to the bottom the odds of making any good profits shrink.

Anyways, as far as the next Xbox goes I expect to see it even more open for devs, both for apps and games though MS will still keep a level of control over any Xbox branded arcade games for obvious reasons.

My question to these guys is why did they start on XBOX at all? As mentioned earlier, games like Braid have been very successful in XLIVE. These are guys who had no prior big game releases or notable titles to their names, that they do now (something Sony usually looks for), so my question to them is why start at XBOX?

I don't doubt MS manages XLIVE horribly for small developers, but when you're unknown and don't have a concrete product to sell, you can't expect the red carpet. Yet some of these guys made a name for themselves on XBOX, and now that they have a product and recognition, they say how they're treated better elsewhere. It's easier to get more backing and support when you have done something. What does Sony do for any unknown developer that wants to make something for Playstation?

So how do I get started on the Playstation platform? “We allow developers to self-publish on our platforms; no slotting, no voting, or any of that rigmarole.”

I know Sony is doing something similar to XNA with Vita and I applaud them for it, it's certainly a step in the right direction. But their tools are not nearly as robust as XNA as of yet. Do I still have to buy a dev kit in the thousands of dollars just to get started developing something on Playstation 3/4? Where are the free tools to get started so I can deploy something on my local box and if satisfied upload it to the PSN market?

Mind you, MS has been getting worse on this by killing XNA and who knows how developing for the next XBOX will be. But so far all I see from Sony is the same thing, a closed platform that offers backing to their selected developers. I hope they really do open up. I developed a game for XBOX and Windows Phone and it was a great experience and I spend no money on it, so I hope I can do the same on Sony platforms soon.

. But so far all I see from Sony is the same thing, a closed platform that offers backing to their selected developers. I hope they really do open up. I developed a game for XBOX and Windows Phone and it was a great experience and I spend no money on it, so I hope I can do the same on Sony platforms soon.

Killing xna might make it harder to code quick little games but at the same time you now have more options. The next Xbox will have the same development tools as Windows 8/RT and Windows Phone does, I have no doubts about it. The goal is to allow developers to target all three platforms with very little work and porting needed.

I have no problems with his Sony love or him posting articles. I get tired of his nonstop ant-MS articles though. I can't remember a single article he has posted in Xbox forums that wasn't somehow negative.